Sold!
by Brigid the Fae
Summary: ModernAU. Oneshot. "You don't pay me enough for this." The new P.A. to Thorin's nephews gets more on her plate than she can handle on a daily basis just trying to keep them in line. Getting sucked into a single's auction is not her idea of a fun time, especially when it's dropped on her. But you know...it's for charity...so there's that? Slight Fili/OC/Kili if you squint.


**A/N: An early Christmas present for the lovely c-s-stars, based around some ideas we were tossing around a few months back. I've never written any dwarves other than Gimli, so I hope I did them justice in this modern AU.**

* * *

"Excuse me for my bluntness sir, but you're not paying me enough for this."

Thorin sighed through his nose as he stared at his newest employee. She had every right to be upset at this news. "I'll add in a bonus to this month's salary if you do this, Mallory."

The red headed woman crossed her arms in a move that he knew to be an act. He'd got her with the promise of the bonus, but she didn't want to agree so easily. "How come you get off so easy?" she asked, resigning to her fate.

"Because I'm the boss." At her snort Thorin grinned. "Think of the money this will bring in. It'll make it easier to get through with your sanity intact."

* * *

Mallory waited until she shut the door of her office before she let out a string of swears. How, in the entire company could she be one of ten women who were single? She'd only been on the payroll at Arken for _three_ months, and now she was drafted into the annual charity benefit. Which, on the surface didn't sound so bad – it was the small detail she'd learned about this morning that made her stomach turn – a single's auction.

She was going to be put up for auction like a piece of meat to be bought for a date.

She'd said as much to Dis when the older woman had broken the news to her in the break room. _"Don't be so dramatic dear," _the older woman had smiled. _"There aren't many unattached women in the company, and far fewer that are as young as you. I know this isn't your cup of tea, but try to have some fun with it? Who knows, it may not be as bad as you think. And there will be gentlemen also participating, to make things fair to everyone."_

"This is a load of bull," she grunted, dropping into her desk chair. No sooner had she leaned back into the plush backrest when her door flew open and her two charges, well… _charged_ in. "I stand corrected."

"Mal! Have you heard the news!"

"About the company's charity event?"

She grit her teeth and tried not to snarl as she said, "As a matter of fact, I have."

Fili picked up on the woman's distress far quicker than his brother. As he studied their new personal assistant, he took note of the deep frown, the downturned browns, and the overall "piss off" posture. Oh, she had heard about the auction alright. And judging by the expression currently on her face, she'd been sucked into the fray front and center. To save his brother from Mallory's wrath about the topic, he elbowed him in the side, effectively shutting him up.

But then his little brother spoke and Fili had to resist smacking him. "You don't look happy."

Mallory sighed. She counted to ten. She chanted "It's not his fault" to herself in between counts. He really didn't know. She couldn't take her ire out on Thorin's nephews, even if they had given her reasons since she started to work at the company. "No…no, I'm not happy about this at all."

"How come?"

Fili did punch his brother in the shoulder this time. "You need to think before you speak-"

"It's fine, Fili. I'm not a fan of these singles auctions, Kili. It feels too much like a popularity contest based around who can bank the most money."

"But it's a charity auction," Kili stated. "All of the money goes to the charity."

"And if you were in my place, how would you feel if you didn't garner as much as Fili?" Mallory saw when it clicked with him. "It's not a nice feeling to think that somebody would try to buy a date with you for as cheap as possible." She frowned again, thinking about that example. "Come to think of it, why aren't you two in the single's auction?"

Kili grinned, waggling his eyebrows. "Are you disappointed that you can't bid on us, Miss Mal?"

"Hardly," she replied, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

Fili laughed at Kili's affronted expression. "There were more men this year who filled the spaces before we were considered. Single women – as you've found out – were in short supply."

* * *

As the days on the calendar were marked off in her office, getting ever closer to the dreaded charity event, Mallory attempted to stay on task as the personal assistant to Thorin's nephews. The more she focused on her job, the less time she'd have to stress about how bad her "earnings" at the auction would be. Since she was the new girl, she didn't expect to earn anything really. There were nine women she thought were far prettier that would pick up the large numbers.

Though when part of one's job is to corral two brothers 90% of any given day, it's not hard to think about much else.

Especially when said brothers have been found on the roof with a pair of boogie boards and goggles.

"Get. Off. The. Roof." She yelled from the ground.

Kili was the first to speak. "We're not even on the highest level of the building," he tried to reason. "And we've got goggles to protect our eyes!"

"You're gonna need more than that to protect your neck when you break it! Get down now!"

If Mallory had been thinking, she would have specified _how_ she wanted them to get off the roof, but it was too late. She watched, horrified as both brothers pushed off the roof, gripping the boards and sliding off the slope. There was a bit of a jerk when they flew off the edge, and the training mats that were pinched from the company weight room barely caught them as they hit the ground. Forgetting how mad she was, Mallory ran towards the crumpled forms on the ground.

"Are you both alright? Is anything broken? Do I need to call for a doctor?"

Kili's head was spinning, but he still heard the concern in the woman's voice as she paced anxiously around them. He lifted his head up – slowly as the pounding between his ears suggested – and tried to focus on the two Mallory's that stood in front of him. "No doctor," he started, easing up on his elbows, "but I am sore."

Mallory crouched down, balancing on her heels as she looked over him. Fili was turning over and preparing to stand, so she knew he was faring well. Somehow in the crash Kili had broken his older brother's fall. "What can I do?" she asked, mentally recounting her skills in first aid. He said no doctor, but if he needed stitches…

"A kiss to make it feel better?"

Her eyebrows lowered as she stared at him. "Well, as it appears that you are of sound mind, there is no need for me to administer any kind of aid, Mister Durin." Mallory stood back up, visibly wincing as the muscles in her legs relaxed.

She turned on her heel and headed back into the building as Fili reached down to grab Kili by the elbow and help him up. "Are you completely daft, brother?"

Kili dusted the blades of grass off his clothes. "You think she suspects?"

"You asked her to kiss you."

"I thought I was being clever."

"You'll be lucky if she doesn't report it to Uncle as sexual harassment. What were you thinking?"

The younger of the two shrugged, following his brother back inside. "I thought that if we could distract her from the charity auction she might appreciate it."

Fili couldn't dispute that. Each day they saw Mallory look a little more stressed, and for once it had nothing to do with them. Not completely, anyway. They did give her a fill of stress to deal with on a regular basis, but since she had been recruited into the auction, it's like watching someone approach the day of their death sentence. No one else in the company that was signed up for the auction had reacted the same way, and the closer it got, the more concerned they became. "Perhaps we should take a different approach."

Instead of going back to their offices, as they probably should have done, Fili and Kili all but raced to their uncle's office.

* * *

Thorin had been taking his lunch break at his desk, preferring to have some quiet before the afternoon's meeting. He had told the secretary to hold any calls that were to come through, turned off his cell phone, turned off the computer…silence. He wanted blissful silence while he enjoyed the leftover roast sandwiches that Dis had put together.

The door to his office slammed open as his nephews tried to come in at the same time.

"_Count to ten. Don't kill family. One. Two. Three-"_

"Uncle!" Kili was the first to shake loose and stumbled into the room. "We need to talk about the charity auction."

"_Four. Five. Six-"_

Fili straightened his shirt as she approached Thorin's desk. "Will you sit down," he mumbled to Kili, nudging him into one of the chairs for visitors.

"_Seven. Eight. Nine-"_

"It's important," Fili started to say, frowning when he noticed that his uncle was in the middle of his lunch. That would explain why Mrs. Mackleroy was protesting as they rushed past her desk. "Of course, it could wait until later-"

Kili turned and looked at him. "It most certainly cannot, Fili! Uncle-"

"Can you not see that he's eating, Kili-"

"_Ten."_ Thorin wiped his mouth with his paper napkin and stared at them evenly. "Speak now or never. I have a conference call this afternoon with Greenwood's CEO and I'm already not looking forward to it. I don't want to spend my lunch listening to you two squabble, so get on with it."

Both brothers mumbled their apologies before Kili spoke again. "It's this charity auction, Uncle. We've been noticing that the closer the day comes, the more upset Mallory appears. She won't tell us what's wrong, but we're pretty sure it has something to do with being brought onto it."

"We were hoping," Fili added, "that perhaps you could find a way to exempt Mallory from the auction?"

Thorin didn't give them a moment's silence to think over his answer. "No."

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"Uncle, surely there's something-"

"There are two days between now and the event. Now while I appreciate you two thinking of Ms. Watson's best interests, there is simply not enough time to find a replacement." Thorin reached for his sandwich, tucking the bits of filling in that had been shaken loose when he dropped it on the desk in surprise earlier. "When the promotional department approached me with this idea, I told them that there must be an equal number of men and women to participate. If I were to exempt Mallory, that would require me to release one of the men from their position. Would that be fair?"

"But Mallory didn't get a choice-"

"And that is unfortunate," Thorin nodded. "Dis told me that she did not take the news well, and I took that text as a warning when she came to my office that day to dispute it. I offered her a bonus for playing along. There was nothing we could do then, just as there's nothing that can be done now. If you two are so bothered by this, perhaps you should show your support of Mallory by doing something about it. Now leave me be and let me finish my lunch in peace."

Fili and Kili rose from their seats, walking out of the office at a much slower pace than before. It was frustrating to think that being the nephews of the owner didn't have as much pull as most thought. They were halfway back to their own office when Fili slapped Kili in the shoulder. "I just had an idea."

"What?"

"Uncle did say that we should show our support for Mallory, right?"

"Yeah?" Kili wasn't sure if he liked the wide grin that crossed his brother's face. This was the same brother who tricked him into eating Rocky Mountain Oysters without telling what it was exactly. But if it was to support their friend and personal assistant, it couldn't be that bad, surely?

* * *

Mallory tugged down on her dress as she waited backstage. The charity auction was well underway, with the single men being given the luxury of being on display for prospective women – and some men. She could hear the auctioneer take the bids for each man, frowning as each bit got progressively higher. It should have been a good think to hear, but all she could focus on was what her mind projected her 'earnings' to be.

Miniscule.

The day before, there had been a rehearsal for both groups, where Dis had walked them through everything they could expect so there would be no awkward shuffling or not knowing where to go. Each group would be brought out between the groups of chairs and led to the stage, where they would stand in line. The one in the spotlight would be called forward, introduced with their starting bid , and it would be a rapid-fire bidding war that would last for three minutes. Dis had said that limiting the amount of time to bid would entice those sitting on the fence to make quicker decisions. Each candidate would have the same starting bid, a fair number that was meant to bring in all budgets. Whether they stayed in for the long haul would be their decision.

Mallory dreaded the moment she'd have to be called forward. She knew that she was a nobody within the company. She didn't expect to bring even one bid in. The other women disagreed when she voiced her concerns. They were kind, but it wouldn't matter in the end. "I can't compare to any of you," she said, crossing her arms. "Nobody knows me, so why would they spend a ton of money to go on a date with me?"

"Don't be silly," one woman said, checking her makeup in her compact mirror. "I wish I had your hair. So thick and curly and natural. You don't have to spend hours to get it to look like that."

"That's probably why the Durin brothers are so into her," another woman pointed out.

"I don't know what either of you are talking about."

Both women looked at her like she was crazy. "Really Mal," the first clicked her mirror shut. "Fili and Kili fall over themselves to get you to notice them. Research and Development has been talking about starting a pool to see when they wear you down."

"I've only worked here for a few months, tops!"

"That don't matter," the second woman tutted. "I have never seen those two so smitten with a lady before you. Granted, Kili did fancy a temp once, but when she transferred to the next city over that sort of took care of itself. The point is they like you, a lot."

Mallory sniffed, looking past their shoulder at the wall. "They like to test my patience is what they like to do." All she could think about were the variety of stunts they had been pulling as a means of "going viral" on their social media accounts. She missed the looks of disbelief as the two women glanced at each other.

If they had been about to comment further, they missed their chance. Dis announced that it was time for the girls to make their debut and to line up as the men exited the stage. Mallory felt her hands begin to shake and clenched them into fists at her side. She had to go out looking relaxed and ready to mingle, but that didn't mean she wouldn't brace herself as the line of women started down the hall behind Dis. _'Shoulders back, chin up. Look forward. Don't make eye contact with anyone. Relax your face, Mal. There. That ought to do it. Deep breaths. It'll be over soon.'_

If Mallory could have been able to see herself march down the aisle and up onto the stage with the other women, she'd have been pretty pleased with herself. On the outside she was an example of aloofness and calm. Inside…she wanted to throw up. Once she was on stage, there was no other place to look out but out across the audience, and like her drama teacher in school suggested, it was better to stare beyond the faces. It didn't help matters any when her gaze flicked across the encouraging smiles of Fili and Kili. She'd had the truth wheedled out of her about her feelings on this auction, so they knew her trepidation.

Despite herself, she felt her lips curl upwards in a smile.

Dis was the auctioneer for the women, and with each candidate that stepped forward before her, the bidding rose to amounts that made Mallory's eyebrows want to raise. There was no misogynistic catcalling or lewd comments directed anywhere, as a small part of her feared. There was laughter, and some hoots of joy from the winning bidders, but it was all in fun. The first woman brought a higher number at the close of her bidding than the second or third, but no one looked upset by it in the least. Candidates four and six did higher, and no one seemed to pay the amounts any mind. They were more interested in being the lucky winner of a date. And then…

"Will our seventh lovely lady come forward?" Dis had called.

Sucking in a breath and letting it out quickly, Mallory walked forward to stand next to the podium Dis leaned against. She looked out at the audience this time, briefly making eye contact with each person, or attempted to with the large group.

"This is Mallory Watson, our newest lady to join Arken," Dis grinned. "Fellas – and ladies, we don't judge – she's new to the area and with her…_agenda_ at the company, she doesn't get a lot of free time to explore the city. Which of you would like to be the lucky one to take her out? Her choice of date, of course, since we sort of put her in this position."

Mallory couldn't contain the laugh. Dis was trying to make her comfortable, and the audience chuckled along with them, not knowing how nervous she really was.

"As always. The starting bid is on the board. Do not call out a bid if you do not intend to pay up. The computer will record your bid regardless."

Almost immediately a voice in the back shouted out the starting bid, plus another hundred. Mallory turned to see the screen behind them change from $100 to $200. The name of the bidder was recorded with the bid, so there was hard copy evidence in case a winning bidder decided to play ignorant and back out.

"$300!"

Her eyes turned back to the audience. She knew that voice. It was Fili. _"He isn't-"_ She turned back to the board, and sure enough, there was his name…as well as Kili's. _"Are they bidding together?" _Could multiple people even use one bidding paddle?

"$500!" A completely different man called out.

Kili grabbed the paddle and held it up. "$700!" he declared, shooting a look at the previous bidder.

The man was unperturbed. "$800."

"$9-" Kili had started to say, but Fili took the paddle and held it tight as he said, "$1,000."

Every couple of bids between previous bidders was met with the occasional "pot-stirrer" who purposely bid just to make the total higher. Mallory had seen it with just about each woman before her turn. But between the brothers and this other man, it didn't appear that any other person would get a chance. _'Or if they do, they don't hang around long,'_ Mallory thought as she watched a few men start to raise their paddles, only to lower them from the sharp looks they got from Fili or Kili. The other man who was immune to their stares continued to bid.

$1,500."

The man was starting to look smug now. She wracked her brain, trying to put a name to the face, but realized that she hadn't so much as crossed paths with this man before. She knew he was around at the company, but she wasn't certain he worked there. Whether he worked remotely or was just a friend of an employee, she knew she didn't want him to win.

Apparently neither did Thorin's nephews. "$2,000!" Kili called out.

"$3,000!"

Both the women behind Mallory and a few people in the audience gasped at the jump in numbers, but the room went silent when both brothers stood up from their seats and said as one, "$5,000!"

Mallory wished she could grab ahold of the podium. Sure, $5,000 wasn't a drop in the bucket for them, but it was a hell of a lot of money for her! She tried not to let the shock she felt show. Her eyes snapped to the other bidder, feeling her stomach twist in knots as he started to raise his paddle-

"And that is time!" Dis announced, waving a hand at the screen. Mallory turned with the others, though she really didn't need to. She already knew that Fili and Kili had gotten the winning bid; since the other man didn't speak before the clock ran out, there was no telling what he would have said.

Dis turned back to Mallory, thanking her for her participation, but she couldn't hear her. On autopilot once again, she returned to her place in line as the eighth participant stepped up. All she could hear was a faint buzzing in her head as she tried to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

* * *

The charity single's auction had gone better than Dis had expected, setting a record amount of money. With all of the hype for organizing the event, she had never gotten around to actually deciding on one charity to support. "I'll worry about it tomorrow," she told her brother with a grin. "We raised enough to support a range of organizations."

"Thanks in part to your sons," Thorin said, watching his nephews across the room.

"Fili did say that you encouraged them to support Mallory…"

"What I meant was to draw attention to the event itself! I hadn't expected that they would bid on their own P.A.!"

Dis tutted, waving him off. "No matter now. What's done is done."

* * *

"Why did you two do that?" probably wasn't the first thing that Mallory should have said, but it was the first thing that came out of her mouth when she approached Fili and Kili.

"You didn't hear that guy," Kili started with what he felt was a sound excuse. "He'd been making comments about all the women since the auction started, but he hadn't bid on anyone until you were up. We weren't about to let that guy win a date with you-"

"So this was out of pity?"

"More like safety," Fili said. Mallory crossed her arms and looked at both of them, so he hastily added, "We also wanted the opportunity to spend time with you outside of work. You've been cleaning up our messes since you started here. You one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. If anyone is deserving of some time away from work, it's you."

"And we didn't want you to think that you weren't as special as the other women," Kili put in. "You may not think that you're noticed around here, but we notice you."

She sighed. "That's because I work for you."

"True, but that's not what I meant. You've done more for us in the little time that we've known each other than anyone has that works here. Most people look at us and see us as the nephews of the head of the company. They don't take us seriously like you do-"

"No one else has learned how we take our coffee so quickly, our fallback lunch plans-"

"Where to find you when you're about to do another stunt for internet attention?" she said sarcastically, making them grin.

For a couple of young men who tended to appear easygoing, she knew they could be quite serious and worked hard. She learned this in her first week with them. The aloofness was a tactic to keep the mood light around the company, but some in other departments never saw the moments where the brothers turned serious and got work done. Then their words hit her full force. They saw that she was working hard, recognized that she was insecure being the new girl, and protected her from what sounded like a complete creep.

"I…I'm touched, really." Was she blushing? No, of course not. It was just hot in the room, with the large crowd of people milling about.

"The date…" Fili rubbed his neck nervously, "It's your call, Mallory. We won't push you to follow through on it if you don't feel comfortable with the idea. After all, we only really know each other within the company, so…"

Again, Mallory found herself speaking without thinking. "I don't mind!" This time she was sure she was blushing at how quick she was to respond. "What I mean is, since we're going to be working together more, it might not be a bad idea to get to know each other."

Kili glanced between Fili and Mallory. "We wouldn't want you to feel like you're obligated to us-"

"I _want_ to," she told them, knowing that she meant it wholeheartedly. "I don't suppose you two happen to know of any fun things to do in this city?" Mallory winked, making them grin. Briefly the thought of what the two women had said earlier crossed her mind, and as she talked with them, she could see what they had been getting at.

Kind of.

A _little_.

'_Whatever happens down the road will happen.'_ And with two people like Fili and Kili, that road was unpredictable, but it would never be boring.


End file.
